Victoria - Royal Collection Trust

Transcription

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Albert
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‘Preparing a handsome picture frame to
pattern chosen by HRH The Prince’:
Prince Albert frames his collection
Lucy Whitaker
Essays from a study day held at the National Gallery,
London on 5 and 6 June 2010
Edited by Susanna Avery-Quash
Published by Royal Collection Trust /
© HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012.
Royal Collection Enterprises Limited
St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1JR
www.royalcollection.org
ISBN 978 1905686 75 9
First published online 23/04/2012
This publication may be downloaded and printed either in its
entirety or as individual chapters. It may be reproduced, and copies
distributed, for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Please
properly attribute the material to its respective authors. For any
other uses please contact Royal Collection Enterprises Limited.
www.royalcollection.org.uk
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‘Preparing a handsome picture frame to
pattern chosen by HRH The Prince’:
Prince Albert frames his collection
Lucy Whitaker
Prince Albert’s systematic approach to art and frames
Prince Albert, assisted by his artistic adviser Ludwig Gruner, researched, rearranged
and reframed the collections of paintings and miniatures then in the Royal Collection.
He also acquired paintings from areas and schools new to the Royal Collection,
specifically fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Italian art, and fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century Netherlandish and German art. Prince Albert’s reputation as an
expert on early Italian art is illustrated by a flattering letter from the dealer William
Blundell Spence, from whom the royal couple had acquired a small painting by Fra
Angelico depicting Christ Blessing. In his letter of 1853 Spence promised to send
the Prince a catalogue and a few photographs of the Lombardi-Baldi Collection,
which he thought would be an important addition to the National Gallery, ‘for I am
perfectly sure from the short interview that I had the honour of having with his
Royal Highness that no person in England is better able to appreciate the value of
the early Italian School’.1
In a letter to Lord Ellesmere, dated 3 July 1856, Prince Albert set out his opinions
about the idea of an exhibition in Manchester proposed for 1857, which would
concentrate on the fine arts rather than their industrial counterpart. This scheme had
the disadvantage of following other exhibitions that had been held in London in 1851,
Dublin in 1853 and Paris in 1855, but Prince Albert wrote:
That national usefulness might, however, be found in the educational direction which
may be given to the whole scheme.… If the collection you propose to form were
made to illustrate the history of Art in a chronological and systematic arrangement,
it would speak powerfully to the public mind, and enable, in a practical way, the most
uneducated eye to gather the lessons which ages of thought and scientific research
have attempted to abstract…
He enclosed a catalogue, organised by school, which he had had compiled and
supplied to the governmental Select Committee of 1853 established to investigate
the future management of the National Gallery. By organising it in this way he hoped
that the exhibition would become ‘a great National object’.2 Prince Albert opened
the exhibition on 5 May 1857 and praised its ‘scientific and historical arrangement,
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and educational character’ and the ‘opportunity of teaching the mind, as well as
gratifying the senses; and manifold are the lessons which it will present to us’.3
Prince Albert’s serious approach to art had first become apparent when he
supervised the rehanging of the Picture Gallery in Buckingham Palace in 1851. In the
Prince’s new arrangement the British School was excluded, except for the work of
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Thomas Uwins, the Surveyor of Pictures, prepared a catalogue to
accompany the paintings4 and the new arrangement was recorded in Louis Hague’s
watercolour of the banquet to celebrate the christening of Prince Leopold in 1853,
as well as in a photograph taken twenty years later (figs 1, 2). Prince Albert’s desire
for order can be seen in his instigation of a systematic reframing of the entire gallery.
Most likely it was the Prince who selected the gilded composition frames with the
reverse-moulded pattern, most of which were supplied by the carver and gilder
William Thomas, of 39 London Street, Fitzroy Square (fig. 3).
Fig. 1 (above left)
Louis Haghe (1806–85),
Buckingham Palace: The christening
banquet for Prince Leopold, 28th June 1853
Watercolour and bodycolour with pen and ink
over pencil, 33 x 47.3cm
Royal Collection, RL 19917
Fig. 2 (above)
Attributed to Hills and Saunders,
Buckingham Palace, the Picture Gallery, c.1873
Albumen print, 15.3 x 19.8cm
Royal Collection, RCIN 2103640
Fig. 3
Willem II van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707),
The ‘Gouden Leeuw’ in Heavy Weather, 1671
Oil on canvas, frame 84 x 106.7cm
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Fig. 4
Douglas Morison (1814–47),
Buckingham Palace, the Picture Gallery, 1843
Watercolour, 27.7 x 39.0cm
Thomas’s reframing of the Picture Gallery with ‘some hundred and eighty five gilt
frames’ began in 1850, when he started to replace all the deeper Regency frames
which had a repeating leaf pattern as seen in Douglas Morison’s 1853 watercolour
(fig. 4).5 At the same time, on 25 December 1850, John Seguier submitted a bill
for ‘Cleaning & polishing the varnish of 152 Pictures in the Gallery of Buckingham
Palace’.6 One advantage of this reframing programme was the elimination of shadows
cast by the deeper frames previously in use; another benefit, as far as the Prince was
concerned, was the unified appearance given to the gallery. Glazing was introduced
in 1859 to protect the paintings in Buckingham Palace from atmospheric pollution, a
constant problem noted by many visitors to London. The previous year, for instance,
the visiting Prussian Helmuth von Moltke had written: ‘Even in Buckingham Palace
there was yesterday a thick fog consisting chiefly of coal smoke. Pictures, gold frames
and embroidered work, must suffer very severely from it.’7
When it came to studying and reorganising the miniatures in the Royal Collection,
for which Prince Albert designed a special cabinet with sliding drawers in the Royal
Library,8 it seems that this was an activity that Queen Victoria enjoyed as much as her
husband did. Albert’s concern for order and standardised display found expression in
the programme he introduced of reframing all the miniatures, which began in 1851
and continued throughout the 1850s. They were put in new frames of a uniform
pattern with a leaf and scroll-pattern surround by J.A. Hatfield, Bronze and Ormolu
Manufacturer, of 21 Cumberland Street, London,9 and a new convex glass fitted.
At the same time the back of each miniature was engraved with an inscription giving
details of artist and sitter.10
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Fig. 5
Samuel Cooper (1608?–72),
Catherine of Braganza, c.1662
Watercolour and bodycolour on vellum
laid on card, frame 14.7 x 12.1cm
Fig. 6
Sir William Ross (1794–1860),
Princess Helena, 1850
Watercolour on ivory laid
on card, frame 7.4 x 6.9cm
As a result of using a uniform frame design the Stuart portrait of Catherine of
Braganza seems, at first glance, to be part of one series with the young Princess
Helena (figs 5, 6). Prince Albert went on in 1860–61 to reframe the enamel portraits
(which are not light sensitive in the way that portraits on ivory, card or vellum are) in
Hatfield frames, selecting about two hundred examples to form a carefully planned
arrangement in the Audience Room at Windsor,11 where they were set in wall panels
with oil portraits by Gainsborough to create a royal gallery of ancestors (fig. 7).
Fig. 7
André Adolfe Eugène Disderi (1819–89),
The Queen’s Audience Room looking north, 1867
Albumen print, 22.6 x 28.1cm
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Prince Albert, the National Gallery
and a new approach to framing Old Masters
Prince Albert’s interest in the framing of pictures extended beyond the confines
of his own collection hung at various royal residences. Perhaps his most important
contribution elsewhere was his work at the National Gallery. He and the Gallery’s
first director, Sir Charles Eastlake, had much in common. For one thing, they shared a
belief in the classification of art following the advances of German art history. Both
believed in a systematic arrangement of pictures by school and period reflecting
the progress made in German galleries, particularly the Berlin Royal Gallery. It was
Eastlake and the Gallery’s Keeper, Ralph Nicholson Wornum, who had compiled the
catalogue of artists organised by date and school in 1853, which Prince Albert had
requested be sent to the organisers of the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition four
years later.12 Furthermore, both were also part of a small group of collectors who
sought out early Italian, German and Netherlandish art.13 Eastlake believed that the
National Gallery should collect Italian art before Raphael in order to understand
the great masters.14 Prince Albert’s interest in Raphael is demonstrated by his aim to
assemble every available print after the works of Raphael, and where no print existed,
to procure photographs. The plan was to continue with Michelangelo and Leonardo,
but this was cut short when he died.15
Prince Albert and Charles Eastlake also shared an interest in frames. The Prince’s
attention to the care of frames at the National Gallery is recorded by Wornum in
the diary he began in 1855.16 Albert visited the Gallery on 31 October 1857 to
see the new pictures. According to Wornum, he was delighted with the new Paul
Veronese, but thought some of the frames in a bad condition and recommended that
one painting (the ‘Vandermeire’) be put in a case. At the next meeting of the Trustees,
on 16 November, Wornum was authorised ‘to regild at convenient opportunities,
such frames as require regilding’.17 Wornum recorded on 23 November that the
frame of the Vandermeire had been re-gilt and on 14 January 1858 that it had been
put into a case.18
By this date Prince Albert had already begun the process of framing and reframing
in the palaces and designing frames for his early Italian and German paintings.
His interest in framing may have been a strong influence on the procedures
of Eastlake and Wornum at the National Gallery. During the 1850s and 1860s
the Director would acquire paintings during his annual continental tours, which
Wornum would then arrange to be reframed or conserved on their arrival in
London. Frequently frames were ‘altered and regilt’, often by the National Gallery
framer, Henry Critchfield, of 35 Clipstone Street, London, who worked for the
National Gallery from 1854 to 1880.19 The same framer also provided new frames in
composition (compo). But Wornum’s remit was broader and more creative than this.
He was involved in the planning and design of new frames.20 Thus on 2 July 1861 he
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noted that he had designed a frame for ‘“A Knight of Malta”? by Pontormo’
(A Knight of S. Stefano attributed to Girolamo Macchietti, NG 670) which G.F. Watts
had presented to the Gallery. Identical and very similar frames, with a reverse profile
with reel and rod motif combined with scrolling ornament in low relief on the flat
frieze, were made by Henry Critchfield for several paintings acquired between 1858
and 1863.21 On 19 December 1862 Wornum ‘approved pattern for Andrea del
Sarto frame … perhaps the best I have yet planned’.22
Occasionally new carved frames were commissioned from Italian framemakers in
Florence, and in such cases it was Eastlake who played the most significant role. In
November 1855 Eastlake reported to the Board that he had entrusted Ugo Baldi in
Florence with the restoration of some recently purchased paintings. The old frames
were also left in Florence to be repaired and re-gilt and Eastlake had commissioned
a new frame for one of them, ‘the art of frame-carving being practised with great
ability in Florence’.23 Then, in July 1857 Wornum noted the arrival from Florence
of a carved frame for the Filippino Lippi altarpiece, The Virgin and Child with Saints
Jerome and Dominic (NG 293), ‘a good specimen of modern Italian frame-making’,
and a frame for the Polluaiulo Martyrdom of St Sebastian (NG 292), ‘overburnished,
but a magnificent design and perhaps the finest frame in the Gallery’. The frame
for Girolamo Romanino’s Nativity with Saints Alexander, Jerome, Filippo Benizzi
and Gaudioso (NG 297.1-5) was made by Spelluzzi of Milan, probably with the
approval of Eastlake.24
Antique frames were also purchased from time to time. In 1856 Antonio Zen
supplied frames for a group of paintings consigned to him by Otto Mündler.25 Some
were made up of fragments of old frames and the better frames moved to other
paintings in the collection. Wornum described the frame bought from Pratts of Bond
Street in 1863 for Bernardino Lanino Virgin and Child with Saints (NG 700) as a ‘fine
cinquecento frame’, but it is probably nineteenth century. In 1856 ‘old frames’ were
brought from Queen Anne Street by Mr Critchfield and selected and cleaned.26
When the National Gallery purchased paintings from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection
in 1857, they also purchased the frames. Almost all were contemporary Italian but
one or two were restored Renaissance frames. The altarpiece by Francesco Botticini
depicting Saint Jerome in Penitence with Saints and Donors (NG 227) (then thought
to be by Cosimo Rosselli) was purchased from the Ricasoli family in 1855 and is
in its original frame, as noted by Wornum in his 1864 catalogue of the National
Gallery paintings, but in fact this was extensively reworked and re-gilded before
its arrival in London.27
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Frames for the palaces and royal residences
and royal portraiture
As we have seen, Prince Albert approved of the adoption of a standard pattern
of frames for official and grand displays, such as the Picture Gallery in Buckingham
Palace, which continued the principles of eighteenth-century palace interiors.
At the National Gallery during the 1860s Eastlake and Wornum modified the use
of standard patterns of frames to give unity to a gallery in favour of frames which
reflected the style of the particular school.28 Prince Albert had already done this in
a remarkable way for his private collection of early paintings, while still retaining the
idea of pairing paintings with the same pattern.
For the considerable work undertaken in the royal residences and palaces from
1838, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert continued to commission picture frames
from firms used by their royal predecessors. The most frequently favoured were the
rival firms of Thomas Ponsonby (Thomas Ponsonby and his son Thomas Thompson
Ponsonby) of 32 Regent’s Circus (1826–54) and 42 Piccadilly (1855–57), and William
Thomas of 29 Berners Street, London.29 Old picture frames were cut and altered,
re-joined and re-gilded. Certain common threads run through the estimates and bills
of the carver and gilders: one is Albert’s desire for order, seen in both his choice and
arrangement of the paintings and the novel use of clear labelling; a second leitmotif
is his interest in new techniques for the manufacture of frames. There are records
of many payments for ornamenting and enriching older frames, enlarging old frames,
converting frames for glass to protect the paintings, for inscriptions and tablets, and
for adapting old pictures frames for looking-glasses as well as new paintings. For the
frames of prints on show at Windsor and Osborne, Ponsonby supplied ‘Balmoral
maple moulding’. New materials such as papier mâché were also used.30 The gilded
composition frames were for paintings by contemporary artists such as Sir George
Hayter, Sir Edwin Landseer and Franz Xaver Winterhalter. For Winterhalter’s portrait
of the Maharaja Duleep Singh, dated 1854, Ponsonby made a frame in the style of
Morant (fig. 8), who had supplied frames for Thomas Lawrence in the 1820s (called
a ‘Lawrence pattern’ in the records) and he created a similar frame for Winterhalter
The First of May 1851 (fig. 9).31 Other frames employed different ornaments, including
Fig. 8
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–73),
The Maharaja Daleep Singh, 1854,
showing detail of Morant-style frame
by Thomas Ponsonby (1816–97)
Oil on canvas, frame 243.5 x 149.5cm
Fig. 9
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–73),
The First of May 1851, 1851, with frame
‘Carlo Marratti patterns’ (in the style of the eighteenth-century frame type known as
‘Carlo Maratta’).
Some new frames were particularly elaborate. For instance, the pair by Thomas,
supplied in 1862 for the marriage portraits by Winterhalter of Prince Louis of Hesse
and by Koberwein of Princess Alice, are enriched with crowns, orange-blossom and
laurel.32 Thomas also made an elaborate frame, designed to stand on an easel at
Balmoral, for Koberwein’s copy of The Prince Consort by Winterhalter (RCIN 403063):
this was made of satinwood, with carved emblematic ornaments, including crowns,
monograms, oak and thistle foliage, and carved laurel mouldings round the inner
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oval.33 Frames were occasionally carved rather than composition, like this important
commission for Prince Albert’s portrait. Evidence for another example is Ponsonby’s
invoice of £14 8s 6d for the ‘making [of a] handsomely finished & emblematic Gothic
frame. Carved entirely in Limetree [sic] and also wholly cut up & veined in the white &
prepared & gilt in the best mat and Burnish Gilding & illuminated to correspond with
Drawing’.34
Prince Albert’s close interest in frames is once again shown by Ponsonby’s estimate
of 1 October 1850 for ‘Preparing a handsome picture frame to pattern chosen by
H.R.H The Prince and furnishing in best B. gold £52-18-6’.35 Ponsonby put together
and repaired a large frame for a full-length portrait sent from Russia and a note on
the estimate, dated 22 February 1850, specified that the ormolu was to be ‘mixed to
meet HRH Prince Albert’s taste to assimilate with colour of gold sent from Russia’.36
In the same year, ‘2 very elaborately carved Frames venetian character’ were to be
‘finished in burnished gold & the matted parts in the full rich coloured ormolu as
described by HRH’; and in 1857, ‘One handsomely enriched & fully mounted frame
Pc. Albert’s pattn…’.37
In this period carvers and gilders such as Ponsonby were undertaking a whole range
of work for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as part of the interior decoration
and additions that were being made to Buckingham Palace as well as their other
residences. Frames and the display of pictures were just one part of the overall effect
of a particular room. In 1847, for example, Ponsonby provided estimates for ‘Eight
carved Dolphins w. leaves finished in best B. gold to match Pattern sent. 36-4-0’ for
Buckingham Palace.38 Prince Albert must have been closely involved in all matters of
design and execution. Ponsonby’s woodwork for the Centre Room was to be executed
‘according to designs approved by H.R.H.’,39 and in 1847 he estimated for a gilt panel
ornament for a looking-glass ‘mounted to H.R.H. Prince Albert’s Approval’ for the
Audience Room in Buckingham Palace.40 An important illustration of Prince Albert’s skill
as a designer is Queen Victoria’s Audience Room at Windsor Castle. As a prelude to his
collaboration with John Thomas in 1860 Albert had commissioned Thomas Ponsonby
to alter it in 1850. This first redecoration included a new cove and cornice, papiermâché enrichments to the ceiling, the decoration and gilding of doors and shutters and
the restoration of two eighteenth-century tables.41
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Frames for new acquisitions
For most of Prince Albert’s acquisitions of contemporary art the frames were
designed or approved by the artist. He purchased, for instance, Ferdinand
Waldmüller’s The Grandmother’s Birthday (RCIN 403605) in 1856, at a private
showing of the artist’s paintings at Buckingham Palace. The composition frame is
German with an extremely wide cavetto section and pronounced corner ornaments
(fig. 10), while the Eduard von Steinle Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, dated 1851 and
purchased by Prince Albert in the same year, has an angular frame with the hollow
decorated with a reed entwined by acanthus leaves; this was made in Frankfurt by
J.P. (Johann Peter) Schneider, where Steinle was living (fig. 11).42 Prince Albert paid
Steinle ‘for a picture & frame £323 10s 8d’ on 16 June 1851.43 On another occasion,
the German artist Wilhelm Hensel designed the distinctive Egyptian frame for
Miriam’s Song of Praise of 1836, which the artist presented to Queen Victoria in 1843
(fig. 12). The gilding would originally have been varied to provide different effects: the
stars were oil-gilded against a matt background and the stylised papyrus plants would
have been burnished.
Joseph Green (1808–73?) made a
rococo revival style frame with pierced
rococo corner ornaments and a swept
and completely pierced back rail to
complement creatively the fairy subject
matter in Daniel Maclise’s Scene from
Undine purchased by Queen Victoria
in 1843 (fig. 13).44 The knot designs
Fig. 10 (above left and centre)
Ferdinand Georg Walmüller
(1793–1865), The Grandmother’s
Birthday, 1856, with German frame
Oil on panel, frame 106.8 x 93.4cm
Fig. 11 (above)
Eduard von Steinle (1810–86), St Luke
Painting the Virgin, 1851, with frame by
J.P. Schneider (Johann Peter’s father,
Christian Schneider, founded the framemaker’s shop in Frankfurt in 1824)
Fig. 12
Wilhelm Hensel (1794–1861),
Miriam’s Song of Praise, 1836
in the corners and the lettering of
the inscription on another frame – by
George Brown of 25 Newman Street,
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off Oxford Street, for William Dobson’s The Almsdeeds of Dorcas, 1855
(fig. 14) – is reminiscent of ecclesiastical designs found on Pre-Raphaelite paintings.45
Prince Albert acquired William Dyce’s Madonna and Child before it was exhibited
at the Royal Academy in 1846 (fig. 15).46 When it was sent to Buckingham Palace it
was in an old but suitable frame.47 The artist went on to paint a companion piece
depicting Saint Joseph in 1847, commissioned by Prince Albert. Both pictures were
subsequently framed in large carved and gilded frames with scrolling leaf ornament
in a frieze, again reminiscent of Pre-Raphaelite frames and the taste for Gothic
ornament, possibly designed by Dyce in consultation with Prince Albert.48 There is
a payment to Mr Draycott which records: ‘Frames – Dyce’s Pictures £16.0.0’ on 22
March 1847 from Prince Albert’s private accounts.49 Presumably this is Frederick
Draycott, who operated from his business at 27 Duke Street, Bloomsbury, London.50
The frame for the Michael Wittmer Raphael’s First Sketch of the ‘Madonna della Sedia’
(fig.16), which Prince Albert purchased in 1853, looks German with its compressed
band of fruit and flower ornament, but it has a Ponsonby label on the back.
Fig. 13 (above left)
Daniel Maclise (1806–70),
A Scene from Undine, 1843
Oil on panel, frame 72 x 88cm
Fig. 14 (above)
William Dobson (1817–98),
The Almsdeeds of Dorcas, 1855, with
frame by George Brown, ‘Looking-glass
and Picture Frame Manufactory, no. 25
Newman Street, Oxford Street, London’
Prince Albert and frames for his early
Italian paintings in Osborne
What is remarkable about Prince Albert’s decision to have his pictures placed
in uniform frames is that this did not stop with the most formal arrangements
of pictures in the grand displays at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. In a
pioneering move he adopted a similar practice for his private collection of early
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Fig. 15 (far left)
William Dyce (1806–64),
The Madonna and Child, 1845
Oil on canvas, frame 119 x 94cm
Fig. 16
Michael Wittmer (1802–80),
Raphael’s First Sketch of the ‘Madonna
della Sedia’, 1853, with frame
paintings. Here, however, while ornament was often repeated and particular
paintings were framed as pairs, the design of the frames also reflected the style
of specific schools.
Prince Albert’s taste for Italian art before Raphael was unusual in Britain in the 1840s,
although he was not the first to collect this period. The rigour and directness of
the Italians up to Raphael must have appealed to him. When he visited Florence in
1839 he was ‘often quite intoxicated with delight’ when he came out of one of the
galleries.51 He travelled on to Rome, where he purchased the Veneto School Portrait
of a Small Boy (JS 312 406402) as by Veronese; this can be seen in the James Roberts
watercolour of Prince Albert’s Dressing and Writing Room (fig. 19), to the right of
the Master of the Misericordia altarpiece. In a concentrated campaign between 1845
and 1847 he acquired 25 early Italian paintings, with the help of Ludwig Gruner. Ten
of these were acquired from Ludwig Metzger in Florence, who had inherited his
father’s collection, including the Duccio triptych, the first acknowledged work by
that artist to enter Britain. Metzger also supplied in 1845 the small Virgin and Child
with Saints (RCIN 407817 LC 32), now considered the work of a follower of Hugo
van der Goes (but purchased as a Hans Memling), which Prince Albert hung in the
Pages’ Waiting Room. In 1846 seven paintings were acquired from Warner Ottley,
whose brother William Young Ottley had formed a collection in Italy between 1791
and 1798.52 Gruner also purchased on behalf of Prince Albert three works from
Cianfanelli in Florence; two from the Melzi Collection in Florence; and two from the
artist Tommaso Minardi in Rome. Some of these paintings were bought by Queen
Victoria via Gruner as presents for Prince Albert. 53
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Prince Albert arranged his personal collection of early Italian and Northern
Renaissance paintings in private rooms at Osborne and preferred to do this
without assistance. He and Queen Victoria took great pleasure in furnishing
Osborne House, of which they took possession in the spring of 1845, and the new
Pavilion (completed by September 1846) and the Household Wing and Main Wing
(completed in 1851). In November1846 an invoice was recorded for packing cases
and transport of pictures to Osborne.54 Although Augustus Wall Callcott, the
Surveyor of Pictures, had been called upon to help sort out pictures arriving at
Windsor from Hampton Court, when the royal couple were arranging paintings at
Osborne the Surveyor was not summoned because, as noted by Queen Victoria (in
relation to the ‘little Drawingroom downstairs’), everything is ‘our very own’.55 Many
frames and the panels are marked with Prince Albert’s brand, a crowned letter A
(fig. 17). Albert’s Italian collection was often framed in combinations of blue and
gold, his German Cranachs in Jacobean revival frames. The frames are distinctive and
exemplify his taste for symmetrical arrangements. In his private room at Osborne,
his Dressing and Writing Room, the Prince arranged his collection of fourteenthand early fifteenth-century Italian art (fig. 18).56 James Roberts’s watercolour of 1851
Fig. 17
Prince Albert’s brand or cipher (letter A
below a crown ) found on the backs of
frames and paintings identifying these works
as the private property of Prince Albert
recorded the framing and arrangement of 17 of the 25 paintings in this room
(fig. 19).
As for Prince Albert’s unusually systematic arrangement of his collection at Osborne,
some acquisitions remained in their original frames. Among these were three from
Warner Ottley: the Pesellino Coronation of the Virgin (seen above the left door in
the Roberts watercolour); the workshop of Jacopo di Cione triptych, in an original
but re-gilded frame (fig. 20; seen reflected in the mirror below the Master of the
Johnston Madonna tondo); and the Gentile da Fabriano Quaratesi Madonna (RCIN
407614, on loan to the National Gallery). Perhaps for reasons of space, he hung
the last of these in the Pages’ Waiting Room at Osborne, alongside his German and
Netherlandish paintings. He had the outer mouldings and brackets with capitals
added to original elements, as can be seen by comparing a 1919 photograph
with one taken after cleaning in 1949–50 (figs 21, 22), when these additions were
removed. He kept the Florentine Baroque frame, typical of those in the Palazzo
Pitti, around the Raffaellino del Garbo saint, seen above the door on the right in
the Roberts watercolour. Bought from Cianfanelli, the panel has a wax seal on the
back, suggesting a Medici Collection provenance.57 The Perugino Saint Jerome in
Fig. 18
Jabez Hughes (1819–84),
HRH Prince Consort’s Room, 1876
Albumen print in Osborne 1876 Album
Penitence (fig. 23), acquired by Gruner from Della Bruna of Florence in 1845, has a
contemporary Italian frame, possibly Florentine or Roman, with carved and applied
scrolling flowering tendril decoration applied to a cassetta type. The Parentino Saint
Sebastian (figs 24, 25) acquired from Minardi in 1847 has a similar type of frame,
probably made in Rome.
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Fig. 19 (top)
James Roberts (c.1800–1867),
Osborne House: Prince Albert’s
Dressing Room, 1851
Watercolour and bodycolour with
touches of gum arabic over pencil,
24.3 x 36.8cm
Workshop of Jacopo di Cione (c.1330/5–
1398/1400), Triptych: The Coronation of the
Virgin, Nativity and Crucifixion, c.1365–70
Tempera on panel, frame 105.1 x 74.8cm
Fig. 21 (above centre)
Gentile da Fabriano (c.1370–1427),
The Quaratesi Madonna, c.1425
Showing framing additions added
to original frame
Tempera on panel
Fig. 22 (above right)
Gentile da Fabriano (c.1370–1427),
The Quaratesi Madonna, c.1425
Showing framing additions removed in 1950
Tempera on panel, frame 229 x 96.4cm
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Perugino (c.1450–1523),
St Jerome in Penitence, c.1480–85
Glue-based medium (?) on canvas
laid on panel, frame 107.5 x 87cm
Fig. 24 (below left)
Parentino (c.1450–after 1498),
St Sebastian, c.1480
Fig. 25 (below right)
Detail of fig. 24
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Albert had some of his other paintings reframed in contemporary British frames.
For example, his early acquisition of a Veneto School Portrait of a Small Boy (fig. 26)
is surrounded by a composition rococo frame.58 Several others are framed in simple
and standard Carlo Maratta-type frames with carved or compo applied decoration,
for example Palmezzano’s Portrait of a Man (Metzger), the Virgin of the Rocks after
Leonardo da Vinci (Metzger) and the Holy Family by a follower of Francia (Cianfanelli;
fig. 27). Visible above the mirror in the Roberts watercolour is the Portrait of a Man
by Girolamo Romanino, in a carved and gilded oak frame with a shell at the arched
section at the top. The style with a plain flat decorated with husks and laurel branch
is comparable with the frames later designed for Pre-Raphaelite paintings (fig. 28).
In order to create a cohesive display, other paintings were placed in identical frames.
The two predella panels, Bernardo Daddi’s The Marriage of the Virgin (which Queen
Victoria purchased from Ludwig Metzger, through Gruner, and presented to Prince
Albert 1846) and Benozzo Gozzoli’s The Fall of Simon Magus (which Prince Albert
purchased from Warner Ottley in 1846) are very close in size and were framed in
matching carved Florentine-style frames, probably by a British framemaker, with pin
and ribbon sight moulding and pierced scrolling acanthus ornament on D-sections.
The piercing is unusual, and glass or fabric would originally have filled the gaps
(figs 29, 30). Matching frames were also made in this country for Zanobi Strozzi’s
Madonna of Humility, bought as by Fra Angelico (from Metzger in 1845, payment
Venetian, Portrait of a Small Boy, c.1550–79
Follower of Francesco Francia
(c.1450–1517), The Holy Family, c.1560
Oil on panel, frame 77.2 x 67cm
Fig. 28
Girolamo Romanino (c.1484–c.1560),
Portrait of a Man, c.1515–17
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Fig. 29 (far left)
Benozzo Gozzoli (c.1421–97),
The Fall of Simon Magus, c.1461–2
Tempera on panel, frame 39.7 x 49cm
and
Bernardo Daddi (active c.1312/20–c.1348),
The Marriage of the Virgin, c.1339–42
Fig. 30 (left)
Bernardo Daddi
(active c.1312/20–c.1348),
The Marriage of the Virgin, c.1339–42
Tempera on panel,
frame 30 x 34.8cm (detail)
for which was made on 7 April 1846; fig. 31), and the Master of the Misericordia’s
Calvary; and The Madonna with Eight Saints, bought by Queen Victoria as by Andrea di
Cione (from Warner Ottley in 1846, payment for it being disbursed on 16 July 1846;
fig. 32).
Fig. 31 (far left)
Attributed to Zanobi Strozzi (1412–68),
The Madonna of Humility with Angels,
c.1440–50
Tempera and tooled gold on panel,
frame 111.1 x 70.25cm
Fig. 32 (left)
Master of the Misericordia (active
c.1360–c.1385), Calvary and the Virgin
Enthoned with Eight Saints, c.1380–85
Tempera on panel, frame 112.7 x 75.1cm
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The early Italian Gothic revival frames have a broad Gothic arch set into a rectangular
frame. A broad flat is decorated with scrolling tendrils against a vivid blue; the broad
flutes within the upper spandrels above are also blue.59 The design recalls fourteenthand fifteenth-century Italian engaged frames, such as that around Pesellino’s
Coronation of the Virgin (above the door on the left). Symmetrically above the Gothic
revival frames are the two bust-length paintings of Saint Stephen and Saint Lawrence
by Ambrogio Bergognone’s workshop. Other frames in the room repeat the blue
decoration, for example the Master of the Johnston Magdalen tondo depicting The
Virgin and Child and Saints (fig. 33), bought from Metzger as by Andrea Verrocchio,
which, as can be seen in the mirror in the Roberts watercolour, has elaborate fruit
and flower decoration in compo. The bead and husk decoration also was used for
the Francia frame (fig. 27). The frame for the Master of Marradi Christ and Saint
John purchased from Ottley in 1846 no longer exists, but the Roberts watercolour
records that Prince Albert hung it below the Pesellino fragment of Saints Mamas
and James and that it used to have a square frame with blue decoration. The Duccio
triptych, acquired by Prince Albert through Gruner in April 1846 from Metzger at
the same time as the Zanobi Strozzi, has similar blue and gold decoration and is likely
to have been made by the same framemaker as the Zanobi Strozzi (fig. 34). The
triptych is fixed in one plane in a plain hollow frame with carved vine leaf ornament
against a bright blue background. This has a powerful effect on the triptych, flattening
it in one dimension and denying the careful perspective of the wings. The bars of the
frame are now living trunks from which the vine grows, emphasising the fact that
the cross has knots and stumps of wood and that it, too, was once a tree but has
become the tree of life.
Fig. 33
Frame for Master of the Johnson Magdalen
(c.1485–1515), The Virgin and Child and
Saints, c.1500–1505
159.2 x 158.7cm (detail)
Fig. 34
Duccio (active 1278 – before 1319)
and assistants, Triptych: The Crucifixion
and Other Scenes, c.1302–8, with frame
designed by Prince Albert
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There is similar blue in the frame of the Friedrich Overbeck drawing Religion Glorified
by the Fine Arts (1840; fig. 35), which was purchased from the artist in Rome by
Ludwig Gruner in 1847 and presented to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in the
same year. It is recorded as hanging in the Small Drawing Room on the ground floor
at Osborne by 1876. The drawing was framed according to the Prince’s instructions,
except for the fact that the title was given on the frame in English rather than in
German.60 The frame is probably not English but German, with its applied gilded
metal ornament on the blue background (fig. 36).
Fig. 35 (below left)
Friedrich Overbeck (1789–1869),
Religion glorified by the Fine Arts, c.1840
Pencil and chalk on three pieces of cream
paper, frame 184 x 163.7cm
Fig. 36 (below)
Detail of fig. 35
Prince Albert and frames for his Cranachs
Prince Albert was particularly interested in the work of the early German painter
Lucas Cranach the Elder, adding about 15 paintings associated with that artist to
the Royal Collection. The Pages’ Waiting Room (fig. 37) was hardly a prepossessing
space for paintings so important to the collector, but the room was centrally placed
on the first floor of the Pavilion and was a key point of intersection in the life of
Osborne House. It was hung with six Cranachs, three more reproduced on porcelain,
The Virgin and Child by Gentile da Fabriano (now on loan to the National Gallery)
and two Netherlandish paintings.61 Since Gruner had acquired Apollo and Diana from
Mr Campe of Nuremberg and Mrs Nicholls had sold Lucretia to Prince Albert, both
in 1844, Prince Albert must have approved the design of these identical frames (figs
Fig. 37
Jabez Hughes (1819–84),
The Pages’ Waiting Room, 1876
Albumen print in Osborne 1876 Album
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38, 39). These are amongst the more unusual frames of the Victorian period, being
Jacobean revival in style, with elaborate composition ornament on pine bases. The
frames were made from an identical mould but the Lucretia frame is less solid and
may not have been made at the same time, or possibly by a workshop assistant. Fruit,
flowers and two towers are the more ornate touches to the Apollo and Diana frame.
The sources for such ornament can be traced back to Fontainebleau, popularised by
Netherlandish prints such as those by the sixteenth-century artist Hans Vredeman
de Vries. Particularly comparable are designs in the latter’s Multarum variarumque
protractionum (compartimenta vulgus pictorum vocat) (Antwerp, Gerard de Jode, 1555;
figs 40–43) and Variarum protractionum (vulgo Compartimenta vocant) (Antwerp,
Gerard de Jode, 1555).
Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472–1553),
Apollo and Diana, c.1526 (RCIN 407294)
and Lucretia, 1530 (RCIN 400050) hanging
in the Pages’ Waiting Room
Fig. 39 (above)
Detail of fig. 38
Figs 40–43 (below)
Plate from Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527–?1606),
Multarum variarumque protractionum (compartimenta
vulgus pictorum vocat) libellus utilissimus / iam recens
delineatus per Iohannem Vreedmannum Frisium. –
Antuerpiae: Gerardus Iudaeus, 1555,
facsimile edition Brussels 1870
Warburg Institute Library, London
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Who made the frames for Prince Albert’s
Renaissance paintings?
The frames themselves for Albert’s Renaissance paintings do not give any clues as to
their makers. Two ledgers in the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, dating from 1840 to
1862 list Prince Albert’s private accounts, but there are no related vouchers or bills
giving details of the payments.62 His skill as a designer and his knowledge of art were
widely acknowledged.
It is hard to relate the extraordinary designs of the frames at Osborne to the often
prosaic frames produced by Ponsonby and Thomas for the other royal residences.
However, their names – particularly that of Ponsonby – appear frequently in both
Queen Victoria’s main accounts and Prince Albert’s private ones.63 Ponsonby’s name
is associated with a number of gifts: on 11 March 1844 he was paid £131 44s for
picture frames for presents from the Separate Reserve Fund Account, and on 25
June 1847 the sum of £101 12s, again for picture frames.64 After 1846 payments
were often made from this account to furnish Osborne. On 16 July 1845 Ponsonby
was paid £51 10s 4d from Prince Albert’s private account for frames for Osborne.65
It may be coincidental, but payments to either Thomas or Ponsonby frequently follow
the purchase of a work of art: for example, on 7 April 1846 there is payment of
£190 to Mr Gruner for the Duccio triptych and painting by Fra Angelico, followed
on 25 April by £22 1s 6d to Ponsonby.66 The payment to Warner Ottley on 16 July
1846 for four paintings is followed on 22 July by a payment to Mr Thomas of £55
10s 6d for frames.67 The payment of £200 to Gruner for pictures on 16 June 1847
is followed on 25 June by the large sum of £184 9s 6d to Mr Ponsonby, and after
Gruner’s purchase of a Cranach 29 June 1854 there is £9 15s 6d paid to Thomas
for frames on 17 July.68
Ludwig Gruner – frame designer?
Prince Albert’s payment to Gruner of £46 8s for ‘various frames’ on 10 January 1848
is worth noting, too, in the present discussion.69 He was an accomplished designer,
immersed in ancient and Renaissance art throughout his career, but the question
remains as to whether he was involved in the design of the frames for Prince
Albert’s Renaissance paintings. He did draw two alternative designs for frames for the
Dresden version of Holbein’s Meyer Madonna, neither of which seems to have been
used; these are now in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden.70 To date no frame designs
have been identified as being designed by Gruner for Prince Albert.
In the wide range of his designs Gruner often liked to combine blue and gold, as
in the group of frames for his early Italian paintings. The gilt coffered ceilings in the
Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, especially the magnificent one in Isabella d’Este’s studiolo, had
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Fig. 44
Plate from Ludwig Gruner (1801–82),
‘Part of a carved ceiling in the Palazzo Vecchio
at Mantua’, from Specimens of ornamental art
selected from the best models of the classical
approach, London 1850
Chromolithograph with hand colouring,
65.2 x 51.6cm
Fig. 45
Elkington Mason & Co. (1842–61),
manufacturer; Ludwig Gruner (1801–82),
designer, Jewel cabinet, 1851
Electro-plated white metal, gilt bronze,
enamelled copper, porcelain and oak,
97 x 132 x 81cm
inspired sixteenth-century Italian framemakers and nineteenth-century designers.71
Gruner included the design of one of the ceilings in his Specimens of Ornamental Art
Selected from the best models of the Classical Approach, published in 1850 (fig. 44). Like
other designers of this period, Gruner combined the bright colours and gold found
in Italian Renaissance architecture and paintings, and was inspired by Renaissance and
Antique ornament (such as in the House of Nero in Rome). These elements are seen
in his cabinet of 1851 (fig. 45), in his illustrations of the decorations of the Garden
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Fig. 46 (far left)
Ludwig Gruner (1801–82) and Anna
Brownell Jameson (1794–1860),
The Decorations of the Garden Pavilion in the
grounds of Buckingham Palace, London 1845
Fig. 47 (left)
Arthur Croft (1828–c.1901),
Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, 1863
Watercolour and bodycolour with gold
painting and gum arabic over pencil, 42.2 x 47.2cm
Pavilion (fig. 46) and the interior of the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore (fig. 47). The
scrolling leaves on the Italian frames and the swags of fruit and strapwork on the
Cranach ones echo ornament designs in Gruner’s pattern books, for example in
Vorlagen für Ornamentmalerei: Motive aller Stylarten, von der Antike bis zur neuesten Zeit
of 1873 (figs 48–50). The Jacobean motifs on the Cranach frames can also be found
in ornament designs, for example in Die decorative Kunst. Beitrage zur Ornamentik für
Architectur und Kunstgewerbe, published in 1879 (fig. 51).
Figs 48–50
Plate from Albert von Zahn, Ludwig Gruner and
Elisabeth Hübler, Vorlagen für Ornamentmalerei:
Motive aller Stylarten, von der Antike bis zur
neuesten Zeit, London 1873
Contemporary designs and motifs
The fashion for transferring the sinuous forms of nature into ornament can also
be found in Henry Whitaker’s Materials for a new style of ornamentation of 1849
(fig. 52) and in his The Practical cabinet maker & upholsterer’s treasury of design
published two years earlier (fig. 53). This 1847 publication is mainly comprised of
designs for furniture in the Italian, Elizabethan and Renaissance styles. The designs for
glass frames, tables and sideboards in the Elizabethan style have fruit and strapwork
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Fig. 51
Plate from Ludwig Gruner, Die
decorative Kunst. Beitrage zur
Ornamentik für Architectur und
Kunstgewerbe, London 1879
Fig. 52
Illustration from Henry Whitaker, Materials for a
new style of ornamentation, consisting of botanical
subjects and compositions drawn from nature,
London 1849
that is very similar to that on the Cranach frames (figs 54–6). The publication also
has designs for furniture for Osborne, including a hall table and chair, but these are in
the Italian style, which was perhaps regarded as more appropriately formal for a royal
residence than the Elizabethan or Renaissance styles (figs 57, 58). The frame designs
for Prince Albert’s paintings would have complemented the Holland & Sons furniture
which was supplied en masse around 1850–51; the firm also supplied chimneypieces,
but not frames for paintings.
Figs 53–8 (above)
Plates from Henry Whitaker,
The Practical cabinet maker
& upholsterer’s treasury of
designs, London 1847
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Three Jacobean revival frames have been found which can be compared with
Cranach frames. Joseph Nash’s watercolour of The Porch at Montacute House,
Somerset of 1842 (fig. 59),72 has a very similar frame, complementing the architectural
style of the Elizabethan exterior in the painting. Almost identical to this is the frame
in Pollok House around the painting of a Girl with a Dove attributed to Anton
Raphael Mengs (fig. 60).73 Sir Willam Stirling Maxwell, the owner of Pollok House,
who was collecting Old Masters from 1842 to about 1855, reframed many of his
collection in this type of frame, probably in the 1850s, but this is the only one still at
Pollok. The idea of a rod with a wrap-over creating internal gaps in the frame is also
found in the more elaborate Royal Collection Cranach frames.
A small frame which is carved rather than compo was supplied by George Cooper
of 36 Piccadilly, where the firm is recorded between 1821 and 1847, for Frederick
Read’s watercolour copy of James I (fig. 61) by Paul van Somer at Ham House.
The frame’s Jacobean style again matches the subject of the picture. George Cooper,
a business continued by several generations with the same name, was better known
for looking-glasses and is often described as a ‘Japanner’ in bills and estimates at this
date. The firm and supplied and renovated furniture at Windsor Castle.74
Fig. 59
Joseph Nash (1808–78), The Porch at
Montacute House, Somerset, 1842
Watercolour, 75.5 x 53.4cm
London, Victoria and Albert Museum
Oettingen-Wallerstein frames
The frames around many of the Oettingen-Wallerstein Collection pictures
that remain in the Royal Collection are also a puzzle. A few retain their original
frames or those put on before they arrived in this country, but the majority were
reframed in the same distinctive gilded frames in a cavetto pattern with crossed
rails (fig. 62). The collection of 79 paintings that had belonged to Prince Ludwig
Oettingen Wallerstein was acquired by Prince Albert in lieu of a loan repayment.75
The collection was hung for some time in Kensington Palace, and in 1848 a
descriptive catalogue of the collection ‘belonging to His Serene Highness Prince
Louis D’Öttingen Wallerstein’ was published by Gruner. The ‘pictures forming the
Wallerstein Gallery at Kensington Palace’ were insured on 28 December 1850
by Prince Albert and the Royal Household.76 Despite this, attempts were made
on behalf of Oettingen Wallerstein to interest the National Gallery in buying the
collection in 1851 and 1852.77 The National Gallery Board of Trustees Minutes
record that the National Gallery declined this offer on 5 April 1852.
Fig. 60
Attributed to Anton Raphael Mengs
(1728–79), Girl with a Dove,
Oil on canvas, frame 90 x 76cm
Pollok House, The National Trust
for Scotland © National Trust for Scotland
As the collection had come into his possession, Prince Albert commissioned Gustav
Waagen to write A descriptive catalogue of A Collection of Byzantine, Early Italian,
German and Flemish Pictures, belonging to His Royal Highness Prince Albert in 1854.
In 1857 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert loaned 94 works to the Manchester Art
Treasures exhibition,78 more than any other lender, and the Oettingen Wallerstein
Collection formed a significant part of sections on ‘German and Flemish Art’,
‘Paintings by Ancient Masters’, and the ‘Byzantine and Italian Schools’.79
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After Prince Albert’s death Queen Victoria offered the Oettingen Wallerstein
Collection to the National Gallery and 25 paintings were selected in 1863. All but
one of these had been shown at the Art Treasures exhibition, together with 20 of the
54 paintings in the Oettingen Wallerstein group that remain in the Royal Collection.80
The paintings were all removed from Kensington Palace in January 1863 and the 54
declined by Eastlake on behalf of the National Gallery were returned to Buckingham
Palace on 3 July.81 At this point many were hung in the Chapel Gallery and have
an 1866 brand on the back (fig. 63). Meanwhile, Mr Pinti restored the 25 National
Gallery paintings and the frames ‘were received, regilt & altered’,82 probably by Henry
Critchfield: the National Gallery still has seven frames from this set of paintings, which
have some variation in compo ornament but are in the same style and can all be
attributed to Critchfield (fig. 64).83 One of these, formerly on the Netherlandish
depiction of The Virgin and Child in a Landscape (NG 1864), has an 1857 Manchester
Art Treasures label on its slip, although it is likely that the slip was reused and that the
frame itself dates from after the painting arrived at the National Gallery.
Frederick Read (1800–1875), James I,
c.1830–75, with frame by George Cooper
Watercolour, frame 80 x 51cm
Fig. 62 (above centre) and detail (above right)
The Monogramist G.B.
(possibly Guillaume Benson,
d. before December 1574),
The Nativity, c.1544–74?
Oil on panel, frame 57 x 50.5cm
Fig. 63
1866 brand found on the backs of
frames and furniture, possibly connected
to an inventory which is now lost
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Fig. 64 (left)
Workshop of Dirk Bouts (c.1400–1475),
Mater Dolorosa from Diptych: Christ and the
Virgin, c.1470–75, with frame attributed to
Henry Critchfield (c.1823–87)
Oil on oak panel, painting 36.8 x 27.9cm
National Gallery, London, NG 711
Many of the Royal Collection frames with crossed rails also have Manchester Art
Treasures labels on their backs; it is unlikely that all of these were transferred from
previous frames – unfortunately the early paintings galleries in the Art Treasures
exhibition were not photographed by Delamotte, so we have no record of the frames
around these paintings.84 The frames are keyed and of pine, indicating that they are
English rather than German. At some point between about 1851 and 1857 Prince
Albert must have had these paintings reframed. A payment of £224 17s to ‘Mr E. Wyatt’
from Ludwig Gruner’s bank account, dated 13 November 1847 (archives of Coutts
Bank, London), may refer to Edward Wyatt, successor of his father, Edward senior
(1757–1833), who supplied frames and other carved work to George III and George IV.85
This payment, however, was made a year before Prince Ludwig had Gruner publish
his 1848 catalogue of his collection and is probably too early to record a reframing by
Prince Albert. No other record of a large reframing payment has been found.
Fig. 65 (above centre)
South German frame, Schwangau, c.1849
80 x 62cm
Oxford frames on the wall in the
Luttrell Arms, Dunster, c.1870
The Oettingen-Wallerstein frames are English, but Gruner may have been involved in
their design since the closest comparison is a German frame, gold on blue, produced
in the region of Schwangau in about 1849 (fig. 65); neo-Gothic became fashionable
here, when the castle of Hohenschwangau was refurbished in the 1830s.86 A highly
adaptable and economic design, the most common English version of the frame,
seen in a small photograph of about 1870 (fig. 66), is the so-called ‘Oxford’ frame,
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after the Oxford Movement. The crossed rails motif is also found in the decorative
borders in Gotthard Oswald Marbarch’s Das Nibelungenlied, illustrated by Eduard
Bendemann and Julius Hübner and published in Leipzig in 1840 (figs 67–9).87
A copy of these German tales and legends was given to the Prince Consort and
bears the bookstamp of his private library. The decorative leaves and scrolling foliage
in the borders, part of a Europe-wide fashion in the 1840s and 1850s, is also close to
the ornament on the frames for the Italian paintings (fig. 25).
Figs 67–9
Pages from Gotthard Oswald Marbach
(1810–90), Das Nibelungenlied Date?
Concluding remarks
Prince Albert was interested in the design of new frames to enhance paintings
in his collection and their display. He liked to create order and unity by repeating
the same design or style throughout a hang, or more subtly varying an idea, both
in grand, public settings such as the Picture Gallery in Buckingham Palace and in
his private rooms in Osborne. We have no evidence that he appreciated period
frames, as Eastlake and Wornum did at this time. We do have some of the distinctive
and flamboyant frames chosen by him to complement his Italian and Northern
Renaissance paintings, their designs being in a Gothic revival style popular in the
1840s and 1850s. Prince Albert’s taste for early Italian and Northern Renaissance
art was unusual for his time, as was his preference for frames in a new style.
Their combination, on display in his private apartments, embodied his most private
and personal taste.
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Notes
1.
Royal Archives, RA PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/5/4194: Letter from W.B. Spence to Hon. Col. Charles Gray,
dated 30 October 1853. The Fra Angelico is attributed to his workshop Christ Blessing (RCIN
407616) and is on loan to the National Gallery, London. The National Gallery acquired 22 paintings
from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection in 1857; see Davis 1986 pp. 565–7. I am very grateful to Jill Kelsey,
Deputy Registrar, Royal Archives, for her assistance with this paper and also to her colleagues Allison
Derrett, Lynnette Beech and Laura Hobbs in for their help.
2. Exhibition of Art Treasures Report 1859, p. 17.
3. Ibid., p. 31.
4. Uwins 1852; Noble 1993, pp. 102–75.
5. The National Archives, NA LC9/405: 10 September 1850 (Thomas – Carver and Gilder – Estimate –
Buckingham Palace – 953.0.0 – 185 Frames for the ‘Gallery Pictures’); and LC11/134 p. 44: Quarter
ending 31 December 1850; Noble 1993, pp. 171–2. Although most frames were supplied by William
Thomas (1822–64), that for Willem van de Velde the Younger’s The ‘Gouden Leeuw’ at Sea in Heavy
Weather (RCIN 405324) bears the label of William Brooks (1828–65). Thomas reduced their charge
of £1,053 by £100 in consideration of the ‘old frames’ they were allowed to keep. This was probably
the value of the Regency frames, whose gilding would have been recovered. On this point see Noble
1993, p. 175 n. 14; Marsden 2010, p. 46.
6. TNA LC 11/144 Bills and Sundries I, p. 53: Quarter ending 31 December 1850 (£13 3s 0d).
7. Moltke 1896, vol. 2, p. 89. Molke was aide-de-camp to Prince Frederick William of Prussia,
and was in London for the marriage of the Prince and to Victoria, Princess Royal. Noble 1993, p. 172.
8. RA LC/LCO/AR/1857/8; Lloyd and Remington 1996, pp. 23–4; Remington 2010, vol. 1, pp. 24–5.
9. RA LC/LCO/AR/1852/6, 24 January 1853; TNA: LC 11/139 fols 95–6, 145; LC 11/139 (1851–5);
LC 11/136 (1855); LC 11/137 (1857); LC 11/152–5 (1858); LC 11/161 (1860); LC9/ (1851–8).
10. Remington 2010, vol. 1 pp. 24–5.
11. H. Roberts 2009, pp. 824–9; Remington 2010, vol. 1 pp. 25–7.
12. Avery-Quash and Sheldon 2011, pp. 167–8.
13. Ibid., pp. 138–9, 159–62; S. Avery Quash, ‘Incessant personal exertions and comprehensive artistic
knowledge’: Prince Albert’s Interest in Early Italian Art’ and S. Foister, ‘Prince Albert’s German pictures’
in the present online collection of essays.
14. Avery Quash and Sheldon 2011, pp. 158–9. The acquisition of the Lombardi-Baldi Collection in
1857 was justified in the Report of the Director of the National Gallery for 1857/8 (printed in 1867),
reprinted in Davis 1986, pp. 565–7: ‘The unsightly specimens of Margaritone and the earliest Tuscan
painters were selected solely for their historical importance, and as showing the rude beginnings from
which, through nearly two centuries and a half, Italian art slowly advanced to the period of Raphael
and his contemporaries.’
15. M. Clayton, ‘Prince Albert’s Raphael Collection’, in Marsden 2010, pp. 176–7.
16. National Gallery Archives, NGA 2/3/3/1. I would like to thank Alan Crookham of the National Gallery
Archives, Louisa Davey, Framing Department, and Susanna Avery-Quash, Research Curator, for their
generous help with this part of my research.
17. NGA, NG1/4: National Gallery Board Minutes, 16 November 1857.
18. NGA, NGA2/3/3/1: 31 October 1857; 17 November 1857; 23 November 1857; 14 January 1858.
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19. For Henry Critchfield, see British picture framemakers. See also Penny 2004, pp. 25, 127, 245, 288–90.
For nineteenth-century frames at the National Gallery: Framing Italian Renaissance Paintings; Penny
1997, pp. 44–52; Penny 1998, pp. 376–7. I am very grateful to Louisa Davey for generously sharing her
knowledge of nineteenth-century frames in the National Gallery.
20. NGA, NGA2/3/2/13: Wornum Diary, 8 December 1859, ‘made a design for a frame for the
Lorenzo Costa’; 7 January 1860, ‘Received the frame for the Lorenzo Costa, quite satisfactory,
though not architectural’.
21. Penny 2004, p. 25.
22. NGA, NGA2/3/2/13: Wornum Diary, 19 December 1862.
23. NGA, NG1/4: National Gallery Board Minutes, 12 November 1855, p. 5;
Framing Italian Renaissance Paintings, p. 2.
24. Penny 2004, pp. 329–30.
25. Mündler 1985, p. 92, 5 January 1856: ‘To Zen, where we passed upwards of 2 hours, and succeeded in
finding 6 frames, adapted to as many out of the Galvagna pictures’. NG5/127/1856 Bill from A. Zen,
Venice 2 April 1856; Bartolomeo Veneto, Ludovico Martinengo (NG 287) has a frame supplied by
Antonio Zen, but made up of fragments, Penny 2004, pp. 8–9.
26. NGA, NGA2/3/2/13: Wornum Diary, 25 September 1856.
27. Wornum 1864, p. 218.
28. Penny 2004, p. 355.
29. British picture framemakers; Beard and Gilbert 1986; O. Millar 1992. Other firms employed were:
George Jackson & Sons, Rathbone Place, London, for frames and glass frames; James Spencer & Son,
Knightsbridge Green, London; Edward Wyatt & Sons; George Cooper & Son; Armstrong & Smith.
30. TNA LC 11/128, p. 90: Quarter ending 30 June 1845. The papier mâché manufacturer, including picture
frames, mouldings and ornament, was C.F. Bielefeld, 15 Wellington Street North, Strand. In this instance
Bielefeld provided a flower and a frame with ‘the woodwork all Gilt, the ornament Oak … £5.10’.
31. O. Millar 1992, no. 916 (RCIN 403843) Thomas Ponsonby label on frame,
‘REGENT CIRCUS PICCADILLY’; no. 827 (RCIN 406995) Thomas Ponsonby label on frame,
‘THAMES GLASS WAREHOUSE’.
32. RA PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/65/4325; O. Millar 1992, nos 881 (RCIN 408903) and 1001
(RCIN 403895); British picture framemakers.
33. O. Millar 1992, vol. 1, no. 955; RA PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/65/4260 (£41 10s 0d).
34. RA PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/20/7236. The date on the invoice itself is 23 December 1856,
the cheque is dated 9 January 1857 and the invoice was receipted on 12 January 1857.
35. T LC 11/134, p. 49: Quarter ending 31 December 1850.
36. TNA LC 11/134, p. 148: Quarter ending 31 March 1850.
37. TNA LC 11/134, p. 149: Quarter ending 30 June 1850: ‘Buckingham Palace For China pictures: 2
very elaborately carved Frames venetian character bold flowing scroll with alternate ruffles & laying
a richly engraved ground & each frame surmounted with its proper heraldic bearing carved in Lime
Tree & entwined with Branches of Palm and Laurel leaves, all the depths of these frames finished in
burnished gold & the matted parts in the full rich coloured ormolu as described by HRH, 46-16-0 ’.
RA PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/23/7845. RA PP/2 7845, 6 July 1857.
38. TNA LC 11/134, p. 145: Quarter ending 30 September 1847, 3 September.
30
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39. TNA LC 11/134, p. 47: Quarter ending 30 September 1850, 2 September.
40. TNA LC 11/134, p. 146: Quarter ending 31 December 1847, 24 November: Ponsonby’s estimates for
‘A gilt Panel Ornament covered with Trellis patterns and pateras on the joints mounted to H.R.H
Prince Albert’s Approval & finished in “Best B.” gold with silvered stars at the back. 7-10-0’.
41. RA, MRH/Supt WC/Bills: Quarter ending 31 December 1850, p. 19; TNA LC 9/405 9 October 1850;
TNA LC 11/134: Quarter ending 31 December 1850, pp. 47–8; Roberts, 2009, p. 826.
42. Label on frame ‘J.P.Schneider j.r. / VERGOLDER / Schnurgasse No 48 / FRANKFURT A/M.’
43. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1851, p. 173, 16 June 1851.
PA LEDGERS, p. 173, 16 June 1851.
44. Label on frame: JOSEPH GREEN / Plate Glass Dealer / Carver Gilder / Looking Glass Picture / AND /
FANCY. WOODFRAME MAKER / Window Service [?] and … (torn off). See British picture
framemakers; O. Millar 1992, no. 486; A. Reynolds in London 2010, no. 54.
45. Label on back. I am much indebted to the helpful suggestions about the frames in the exhibition
Victoria and Albert: Art and Love (The Queen’s Gallery, London 2010), made by Michael Gregory,
Nick Penny, Michael Field and Stephanie Carlton. Alex Buck has provided much helpful advice and
assistance on frames in the Royal Collection.
46. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1845, p. 51, 12 August, ‘August 12 1845 Mr Dyce Picture of Virgin
and Child £.80.0.0’ ( in List of Pictures, 11 August 1845); and Prince Albert commissioned St Joseph
in 1846, RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1846: p. 59, 25 May, ‘ May 25 1846 ‘Companion to
Madonna and Child £80.0.0’ (in List of Pictures, 25 May 1846).
47. RA VIC/ADDC12/23: Dyce, 9 August 1845, ‘The frame from which the picture now is, is an old
one but as it seems to suit the picture very well, it might … be regilt’; O. Millar 1992, nos 227, 228.
48. There are no framemakers’ labels on the frames.
49. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1847, p. 67, 22 March.
50. See J. Simon in Directory of British Picture Frame Makers.
51. Jagow, 1938, pp. 19-20.
52. Waagen, 1838, vol. 2, pp. 121-131. S. Avery Quash in Gordon, 2003, pp. xxv-xxvi; J. Shearman xiv-xv.
53. Metzger: Duccio, 400095 JS 86, Bernardo Daddi, 406768 JS 79; Fra Angelico 403377 JS 8; workshop of
Ambrogio Bergognone 406339 and 406 338 JS 41,42; Marco Palmezzano 405472 JS 182; Zanobi
Strozzi 400039 JS 252; Francesco and Bernardino ? Zaganelli 406294 JS 327; attributed to Master of
the Johnston Magdalen 405685 JS 216; after Leonardo da Vinci 404668 JS 136. Ottley: Benozzo
Gozzoli 403372 JS 132; Gentile da Fabriano 407614 JS 111; Master of the Misercordia 403954 JS 154;
Pesellino 407613 JS 196; Pesellino and workshop 403385 JS 197; workshop of Jacopo di Cione 403483
JS 135; attributed to the Master of Marradi 403484 JS 153. Cianfanelli: attributed to Sebastiano
Mainardi 403027 JS 150; attributed to Raffaellino del Garbo 406697 JS 215; follower of Francesco
Francia 404604 JS 98. Melzi: Giulio Cesare Procaccini 402738 JS 212; workshop of Ambrogio
Bergognone 403940 JS 40; Minardi Giovanni Battista Cima 407288 JS 71; Parentino 403487 JS 184.
54. TNA LC11/134 p. 71: Quarter ending 31 December 1846, John Dickson, Joiner, ordered
and invoiced 23 November 1846 ‘For cases to Pack Pictures for Osborne R. Cripps £1 – 15 - 1½’.
55. RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ/1845: Queen Victoria’s Journal, 20 June 1845; O. Millar in Lloyd 1991,
p. 25; O. Millar 1992 pp. xxxv–xxxvi.
56. Catalogue (Osborne)1876, pp. 84–90.
57. John Shearman, proposed that the wax seal, partly defaced, with ducal coronet and six palle in the
right half, suggested a provenance from the Medici Collection in Florence and that the seal could be
that of the Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa, last of the Medici, who died in 1743, bequeathing all the
family collection to the next Grand Duke (Shearman 1983, no. 215).
31
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58. Noted in List of Pictures, ‘Bought at Rome 1839, Paulo Veronese, Portrait of a Child of a Noble Family £40’.
59. The frames for the Zanobi Strozzi, the Master of the Misericordia and the Duccio were skilfully
restored in the Marlborough House workshop by Stephen Sheasby, Perry Bruce-Mitford and Lizzie
Parker, and by Michael Field and Stephanie Carlton in the Windsor Conservation Studio. For the
Gothic frames the blue had been covered by gold – it was too much for twentieth-century taste.
The Duccio triptych had been reframed so that it was not held flat in one plane when the painting
was restored 1983–8.
60. There is no copy of the letter in the Royal Archives; it is summarised in Prince Albert’s letter register
RA VIC/ADDA10/77: 16 December 1847; K. Heard in Marsden 2010, no. 55
61. Catalogue (Osborne) 1876, pp. 69–71.
62. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED.
63. Other names in RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED, RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/JNL
and RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/LED: Mr Spencer, framemaker at Windsor, Mr Gregory,
Mr Vokins (presumably John and William Vokins, 1837–1910).
64. RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/JNL/1844: p. 262, 11 March, and RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/JNL/1847:
p. 268, 25 June.
65. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1845: p. 49, 16 July.
66. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1846: p. 57, 7 April and p. 58, 25 April.
67. RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/JNL/1846: p. 191, 16 July (£270.0.0) and p. 192, 22 July,
(Mr Thomas £55-10-6’). The date of the purchase of the four paintings is 14 July 1846,
not 16 July, in List of Pictures.
68. RA PPTO/PP/QV/QVACC/JNL/1847: p. 209, 16 June (Mr Gruner £200 0s 0d) and 25 June
(Mr Ponsonby £184 9s 6d) and RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1854: p. 4, 29 June
(Gruner £27 6s 0d) and p. 5, 17 July (Thomas).
69. RA PPTO/PP/PAPC/PAPCACC/LED/1848: p. 75, 10 January: ‘10 January 1848
Mr Gruner various frames 46-8-0’.
70. Dresden, Staaatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstich-Kabinett, C 1982-120/1.
I am very grateful to Jonathan Marsden for this information.
71. Penny 1998, pp. 379–80; Marsden 2010 pp. 19–20.
72. No. 1039-1873. I am very grateful to Michael Snodin and Mark Evans for this information.
73. Mengs Girl with a Dove, PL 104, on loan to Pollok house from the Maxwell family. The rods are wood
covered in gesso. I am grateful to Nicholas Penny for telling me about this frame. I am indebted to
Robert Ferguson, National Trust for Scotland, for providing me with invaluable information and images
of the frame.
74. E.g., in 1846: TNA LC 11/131, p. 35: Quarter ending 31 March 1846; LC 11/ 132; p. 46:
Quarter ending 30 June 1846; LC11/ 133, p. 63: Quarter ending 30 September 1846.
See also Cooper in Directory of British framemakers.
75. L. Campbell 1985, pp. xlviii–l; L. Campbell 1998, p. 14.
76. RA VIC/ADDT/24. The policy itself runs from 28 December 1850 but is signed
and dated 3 January 1851.
77. RA VIC/ADDT/25-29: Correspondence between Mr C. Neeser, on behalf of Oettingen-Wallerstein,
and Lt-Colonel Phipps, Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to Prince Albert, 27 December 1850
to 22 March 1852. NGA, NG5/88/3, NG5/89/9, NG6/2/56: National Gallery letters 8/8/51, 31/3/52,
6/4/52 correspondence between Henry Mogford and Colonel Thwaites; L. Campbell 1998, p. 14.
32
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Art & Love
78. Victoria Whitfield in Hunt and Whitfield 2007, p. 19.
79. Manchester 1857.
80. NG 720, workshop of Master of the Female Half-Lengths, The Rest on the Flight into
Egypt was not included in the Manchester exhibition.
81. The paintings chosen by the National Gallery: NG622, NG701–723, NG1864.
82. NGA, NGA2/3/2/13: Wornum Diary, 28 March 1863. I am very grateful to Peter Schade and
particularly Louisa Davey of the National Gallery framing Department for their help with the
Oettingen-Wallerstein frames.
83. Louisa Davey suggests the following frames: NG73, NG622, NG711 (former frame), NG712 (former
frame), NG719 (former frame), NG723 (former frame), NG1864 (former frame). The tacking line on
the back of the frame for NG1864 (F 20202) is evidence of the cloth backing which Wornum
arranged to have put on to protect paintings.
84. Delamotte, Album of photographs entitled Recollections of the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, 1857.
85. My thanks to Jonathan Marsden for this reference.
86. Spindler 2007, pp. 107–8.
87. I am very grateful to Philip Ward-Jackson for this suggestion.
33
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Art & Love
Bibliography
Manuscript sources
List of Pictures
List of Pictures presented to or purchased by His Royal Highness Prince Albert, 1847.
MS at St James’s Palace (RCIN 1112582)
Printed books and articles
Avery-Quash and Sheldon 2011
S. Avery-Quash and J. Sheldon, Art for the Nation: The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art
World, London
Beard and Gilbert 1986
G. Beard and C. Gilbert (eds), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660–1840,
London
L. Campbell 1985
L. Campbell, The Early Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen,
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L. Campbell 1998
L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Schools,
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Catalogue (Osborne) 1876
Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and other Works of Art at Osborne, London
Davis 1986
M. Davis, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, rev. edn, London
Delamotte 1857
P.H. Delamotte, Recollections of the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, Manchester
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J. Simon, National Portrait Gallery Directory of British Picture Frame Makers 1630–1950
(http://www.npg.org.uk/research/conservation/directory-of-british-framemakers/c/
british-picture-framemakers-1750-1950-c-part-2.php).
Exhibition of Art Treasures report 1859
Exhibition of Art Treasures of The United Kingdom held at Manchester in 1857:
Report of the Executive Committee, Manchester
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&Albert
Art & Love
Framing Italian Renaissance Paintings
J. Simon, Framing Italian Renaissance Paintings at the National Gallery, London: (http://
www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/the-art-of-the-picture-frame/guides-italianrenaissance.php).
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D.Gordon, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, vol. 1,
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Gruner 1873
L. Gruner, Vorlagen für Ornamentmalerei: Motive aller Stylarten, von der Antike bis zur
neuesten Zeit, Leipzig
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Hunt and Whitfield 2007
T. Hunt and V. Whitfield, Art Treasures in Manchester: 150 years on, exh. cat.,
Manchester City Galleries
Jagow 1938
K. Jagow (ed.), Letters of the Prince Consort 1831–1861, London
Lloyd 1991
C. Lloyd, The Queen’s Pictures: Royal Collectors Through the Centuries, exh. cat., National
Gallery, London
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of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, exh. cat., Buckingham Palace, The Queen’s Gallery,
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CA; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
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exh. cat., Manchester
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The Queen’s Gallery, London
O. Millar 1992
O. Millar, The Victorian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen,
2 vols, Cambridge
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Moltke 1896
H. von Moltke, Moltke’s Letters to His Wife and Other Relatives, trans. J. R. McIlraith,
2 vols, London 1896
Mündler 1985
O. Mündler, The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855–1858, ed. Carol Togneri Dowd,
Walpole Society, vol. 55, 1985
Noble 1993
C. Noble, ‘Fashion in the gallery: The Picture Gallery’s changing hang’, Apollo,
vol. 138, no. 379, pp. 102–75
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N. Penny, ‘The study and imitation of old picture-frames’, Burlington Magazine,
vol. 140, no. 1143, pp. 375–82
Penny 2004
N. Penny, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings,
vol. 1: Paintings from Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona, London
Remington 2010
V. Remington, Victorian Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen,
2 vols, London
H. Roberts 2009
H. Roberts, ‘“The gem of the Palace”: Queen Victoria’s Audience Room at Windsor
Castle’, Burlington Magazine, vol. 151, no. 1281, pp. 824–9
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Uwins 1852
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37

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